Loch Earn Tourism Information (LETi) helped to show off local talent aged 8 to 26 in the villages of Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Strathyre and St Fillans during national tourism "Year of Young People 2018" with its BLiSS Future programme '#BLiSSfuture.and we plan to continue building a relationship going forward.

The government and Visit Scotland led initiative aimed to; provide a platform for young people to have their views heard and acted upon, showcase the amazing talents of young people through events and media, develop better understanding, co-operation and respect between generations and recognise the impact of teachers, youth workers and other supporting adults on young people’s lives.

Young people all over Scotland planned opportunities and actioned programes to express themselves through culture, sport and other activities under the theme headings of

Participation

Education

Health and Wellbeing

Equality and Discrimination

Enterprise and Regeneration

Culture

LETi talked with members of the community and external partners hoping to engage with young minds. Hopefully some young residents will remain or return to our villages one day to; set up businesses, ensure the continuaton of annual events, represent us at community council meetings, edit The Villagers newspaper, chair LETi and take over other tasks that keep our communities and economy going - whether for income or as a volunteer.

Projects for our award winning tourism group included encouraging young guests to write tourism reports and stories in our community newspaper "The Villagers" monthly, collating poems describing favourite aspects of Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Strathyre and St Fillans for digital publication.

We also worked with GeoTourist the world travel app enablers to produce an audio trail of the Scottish Thistle Award winning BLiSS trail of art installations including 8-26 year old's who recorded voice over descriptions that are audible when visiting the sculptures at their GPS locations.

We promoted young people at events like; mini Stuc a Chroin, the BLS Highland Games, The Strathyre Music Festival.

More importantly, we spoke to Strathyre's headmistress about a legacy and future collaboration between our tourism members and young pupils in the community.

Find out more about YOYP2018 here http://yoyp2018.scot/. Young people took part in Scottish Parliament and Young Scot Ambassadors were en elected in every region of Scotland.

LEGACY

Young people in our communities should not just be the subject of our attention for a celebration year, LETi sees this as the start of something positive. We are delighted to announce that we will continue working with Strathyre Primary School to collaborate on tourism professions and businesses in the area. Members of LETi have already commited their time to present to the children in school or to invite them to their place of work with teachers and or parents as relevant.throughout 2019.

NB: BLiSS stands for Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Strathyre and St Fillans with the i in the middle representing the international Tourist Information symbol and innovation..

Visit Loch Earn Tourism Information at www.robroycountry.com. If you have a tourism related business within our villages and would like to join LETi, contact: Kim Proven, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.